The present invention relates to cable or wire dispensing apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for storing, straightening and dispensing cable from a coil of the cable on portable apparatus in situs in a building.
Heretofore internal wires in flexible armored cable (sometimes called BX) and electrical wires in non-metal sheathing (sometimes called Romex) have been stored as coils and dispensed for installation in a building by an electrician who must laboriously straighten spirals in the cable by hand as he lifts or pulls the cable from the center of the box in which the coil of cable is usually stored. The cable must be straight and without spirals for the electrician to install it properly in the building. Furthermore, Romex sometimes incurs kinks (sharp bends) that the electrician must straighten by hand. Thus an electrician spends time on the jobsite straightening the cable before he can begin to pull it through the walls, floor or ceiling of the building.
In the prior art, attempts have been made to provide apparatus used on the jobsite specifically for holding and dispensing cable from the outside of the coil for installation in a building. These have included a rotatable reel for the coil of cable, carried on a fixed base so that the cable is dispensed from the apparatus a few feet above the floor. The prior art apparatus usually includes a drum or tub container for the reel and a mechanism inside the container for securing the coil to the reel. The cable is pulled from the reel throught an aperture in the drum, and in some cases the drum is rotatable on a fixed stand. By pulling the cable from the outside of the coil, rather than the center, it is less likely that spirals will occur. However, spirals do occur, particularly when the cable pull relaxes and kinks in Romex must be straightened by hand.